The New Rochelles - It's New
Posted Aug 19, 2011, by The Bear.
Genre: Punk;
I’m going to try to keep this review short because it seems rude to write a review of an album that takes more time to read than it does to actually listen to the record itself.
The New Rochelles’ album, It’s New, now available from Bright and Barrow Records, is made up of twelve tracks of fast paced old-school Pop Punk goodness. The entire album itself is about fifteen minutes long (no joke) with an average running time per track of about one minute and 22 seconds, give or take.
These guys have obviously been influenced by the Ramones, and such Ramones Pop-Punk descendants as the #s and Screeching Weasel. As with Teenage Bottlerocket, the New Rochelles are a new Punk band that likes simple rock riffs, short songs, leather jackets, jeans, and T-shirts. Quite appropriate, actually, as these guys, like the Ramones before them, are from New York.
Musically the songs on this record are very basic - choose a basic riff / chord progression and repeat as needed. Nothing wrong with that – the Ramones themselves called what they did “bubble-gum pop played at high-speed” and that’s true here too. However since the songs are so short they finish up before they can get repetitive and wear out their welcome.
Lyrically the songs are straight-forward and they don’t take themselves very seriously. Subjects include things like getting shocked from the carpet on your floor (“Static Shock”), the singer’s leather jacket (“This is My LJ”), being a bad boy growing up (“I Did Something Bad”), and other assorted subjects. Occasionally the songs veer into more surreal territory, such as with “Skunkape,” about a monster in a local swamp that steal the singer’s clothes, or “Jargon Mania” which talks about putting a person they dub a “wingnut” into a rocket and firing it into the sun.
There’s a lot more where those songs came from but it would be better for you to just check out the record itself. It’s been quite a while since someone made a Punk Rock record like this. Is there anything new musically about it? Not really. Is it derivative? Oh yes, very much so. Does that make any difference? Not one bit! This record has an innocence about it that’s refreshing, even in its more serious songs, and it serves as a strong reminder that Punk Rock is supposed to be fun! And what’s wrong with that?
